


Doomed By Canon

by WhatIsThisNonsense



Series: Good Bend(y) AU [3]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Alternate Universe- Canon Divergence, BATIM, Body Horror, Cartoon Physics, Denial: The AU, Fridge Horror, Gen, Good Bend(y) AU, Not Quite Saved Enough, Real Cartoons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-05
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-09 06:18:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12270618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatIsThisNonsense/pseuds/WhatIsThisNonsense
Summary: Ladies and Gentlemen! Boys and girls of reasonable ages!We at Joey Drew Studios have a treat for you tonight, LIVE from our very basements! Mind the stairs, and stay within the circle at all times; tonight, we bring you a prequel of our beloved product, the Good Bend(y) AU! Let us spin you a tale of a girl who's story was over before it begun, but damned if she didn't try to fight it!Oh, how that poor girl tried.We proudly present our feature presentation;Alice Angel in DOOMED BY CANON!Brought to YOU in Sillyvision.





	Doomed By Canon

Alice's back hit the wall of the lift, Susie's threats still screeching in the distance as the gates closed and the elevator began to rise, rattling loudly as it hauled its metal mass up the floors.

 

As the lift rose, the angel sunk, sliding down the wall into a slumped sort of sitting, staring at her bare, ink-coated legs as she tried to catch her breath. The shredded ends of her skirt splayed carelessly over what little white was left on her thighs, and over the dark-stained tile, too dark to tell if those misshapen... _things_ made of ink and flesh had stained it too (though all things considered, it didn't matter much, she supposed.) One hand forced itself to uncurl from where she was fiercely holding on to the fire ax she found and instead tangled itself in her hair for the umpteenth time that day, catching on knots as she tried to smooth the curly black mass back and failed. Her halo flickered, and dripped.

 

She had to calm down, and think. She wouldn't be any good to anyone like this.

 

First, there was Norman-- or at least, what was _left_ of him, the poor darling man-- projector of a head flickering as he struggled to stay _himself_ long enough to write out Susie's name and the floor she was on. Then there was the rotting mass Susie had become, proving that imitation was the sincerest form of insult. She was less obliging, and it had taken an ax to the halo-like growth coming out of her head and a face inches away from a pool of ink, but the voice actress had given her where she needed to go; the Music Department, she had said. “ _I hope he devours you too, you wicked little copy_ ”, she had said.

 

On second thought, perhaps recent events were not the best things to recollect when trying to calm down. Alice gave a slight shudder and squeezed her eyes tight, forcing back the tears that had been threatening to spill for some time. _No, none of that._ She could not afford the luxury of coming undone, not now, not yet.

 

Left with little option, she pulled her other hand from her ax, letting it lay limply in her lap as she clasped both hands together above it. Her head bowed, and face falling lax, the angel began to do something she hadn't done in quite a long time; pray.

 

She had words for it, at last, and it wasn't that she didn't think it didn't help occasionally, but it had mostly fallen out of favor as a reaction to her being a damsel in distress. Moreover, now that they were in the physical plain, it just made Bendy's skin crawl in a way it never did in the Inkwell, so there hadn't been much point. Now, however, she was quite distressed, and Bendy wasn't here.

 

That was rather the problem, actually.

 

“If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing...”

 

Lights rolled over her with each passing floor, a brief glow shining as her breath evened with each word that fell from her lips.

 

“...At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. And now these three remain; faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is...” The last word caught in her throat as a gasp as the lift lurched to a sudden stop, leaving her only with the dim light of her halo as it left her in a small, dark room of wood. For a moment, she waited, as if expecting the lift to suddenly drop and have her fall the length of the underground complex to her death. When it became clear her luck was not _quite_ so terrible, she released a long sigh before pulling herself to her feet, briefly using the fire ax to hold her weight like a cane before she straightened completely.

 

Though her halo wasn't quite as bright as it should have been, it at least highlighted a doorknob on one of the walls. On turning it and exiting the lift, Alice found herself in a room filled with ink barrels (which even by Toon standards she didn't understand) and Bacon Soup (which she was really starting to get tired of, even if Boris wasn't). There was a door leading out into an antechamber before her, and a hall to her right with another door, though it was already occupied by a defiled cutout of the darlin' devil, eyes bulging in a way that no Toon's eyes should ever look as it held tight to a warning sign.

 

_Wandering is a Terrible Sin._

 

Alice shuddered and quickly trotted towards the antechamber. There was nothing of note except a few shelves full of Bendy dolls, and she passed through it and the hall beyond swiftly. It wasn't until she turned the corner and heard the first snippets of dialogue that she stopped, ducking behind a cluster of ink barrels to listen in.

 

“--and Our Lord can tolerate no failure in this state”, Sammy's voice hissed through the gloom. The angel frowned softly to herself, mouthing ' _Our Lord_ ?' quizzically. Unless The Boss had deigned to come to the Studio-- unlikely, given the state of things-- she could only assume that the music director was talking about Mister Drew. _But that doesn't make any sense._ It was no secret that Sammy Lawrence, songwriter supreme, _hated_ Mister Drew with the burning passion of a thousand suns. To become suddenly so sycophantic would be as wildly out of character for the music director as it would be for Boris to suddenly despise bones and poker.

 

A gurgling groan answered Sammy, and Alice couldn't help but give the smallest gasp as she pulled her ax closer to her chest; he was talking to one of those _things_ that attacked her earlier. By some miracle, the music director didn't notice the slight sound; instead, he huffed irritably at the _thing_ he was talking to.

 

“ _Look_ ”, he snapped. “I know Joey made you with about as much brains as he has, but _try_ to understand.” Now _that_ sounded more like Sammy. “Until he gets more souls, the Ink Demon is too weak to be left unguarded. You need to stay _here_ and make sure no meddling upstarts get to him.”

 

_Ink...Demon?_

 

One of the angel's hands flew up to her mouth, keeping her quiet as her mind went reeling. _Ben._ Who else could it be? It wasn't like there were any other demons from the Inkwell in the Studio. At least, she hoped not.

 

As the music director and the _thing_ continued to talk-- or rather, the _thing_ continued to gurgle questioningly and Sammy continued to yell at it-- Alice peered over the barrels to try to get a better look at the scene. She couldn't see either of the two engaged in “conversation”, as they were too far around the corner for that, but she could see a light fixture on a particularly weak looking bit of ceiling. She glanced up at her halo, glowing brightly for a split second as an idea hit her, just before she snatched it from above her head, laying the ax on top of the barrels and stringing the holy ornament between her fingers, stretching it back.

 

_Well, it worked on Susie._

 

With a springing _twang!_ , she let go of the halo-turned-slingshot, sending it rocketing into the splintered ceiling and its lamp. In a satisfying _CRACK_ , the wood and light fixture gave, and the slightly-abused looking holy ornament ricocheted back to her hand just in time to avoid being caught in the falling debris. Alice quickly ducked behind the barrels again, one hand dragging her ax back down with her while the other placed her halo back over her head where it belonged. As the light in the hall went out, Sammy coughed and swore through the dust and splinters.

 

“Dammit”, he snarled. “Couldn't find it in the budget to upkeep this place, could you Joey?” He gave another, disturbingly wet sounding cough before growling slightly. “ _You._ You just...stay here, and kill anything that tries to get past you, alright? I'm going to go find something to light this place back up.” Getting an affirmative gurgle as his only reply, Alice listened as his grumbles about ' _still having no decent help_ ' passed by the hallway's opening and beyond, an ugly sort of slurp intertwined with his fading footsteps.

 

She waited for a few more seconds until she was sure he was gone, then slipped out from behind the barrels and continued on to the corner of the hall, halo lighting things up just enough for her to see. Even so, as she glanced around the corner, the only thing she could make out of the _thing_ in the darkness were the lights of it's too-many eyes and the gnashing of it's too-many teeth.

 

Alice gulped, gripped the ax tightly, and surged forward.

 

As luck would have it, the thing hadn't been paying attention until she was already too close to avoid. It let out a screech, only to have it halt and choke as the blade of the fire ax descended on it's malformed head. Not taking it to chance, Alice hefted the ax over her head and brought it down again a second, a third, a _fourth_ time, until the twisted creature was little more than a few globs of ink and meat on the floor. Her breath came in gasps as she tried to collect herself again. Once more, she tried to push her hair back and only succeeded in adding more tangles.

 

When she could do something akin to breathing even again, she dragged herself further along until she could find a door and slip through. Wisely, she locked the door behind her before turning to look into the room she entered.

 

Darkness greeted her. A few candles appeared to still be lit, but they were strangled by the black and most of them were out. Even her halo only covered her immediate area, and holding it out before her made it start flickering, hastening her to place it back over her head before it went out completely. Deep within the shadows, she could hear something wheeze, and _giggle_. For a moment she couldn't place the voice, until it hitched just high enough to register. She did a double take into the gloom.

 

“Ben...?”

 

There was no response. Or at least, no coherent one; the wheezing and giggles continued, fading in and out as if the very walls were breathing. Still, that was distinctly one of Bendy's hiccuping laughs, and he had been nothing but wheezes and hisses for the past several weeks. Frowning, the angel reached behind her back into her Inventory, sorting about in the invisible hammerspace until she found the flashlight she picked up in her exploring. Pulling it out into reality, she aimed the light and flicked it on. For a glorious moment, the room lit up.

 

There was absolutely no time to register anything she was seeing before the flashlight, too, flickered, and died, all light swallowed up by the darkness.

 

“Oh, _what_ ”, she hissed at it, smacking it a few times against her her thigh to try to get it to work. It spluttered a few times before going out again. She brought it up to glare at it and huff. “Really?”, she asked it, “I finally find a use for you and you don't even work? _Really_ ?” The darkness gave another Bendy-like giggle. She waved the non-functioning flashlight in the gloom's general direction. “ _You_ , hush. I swear if that's really you, Ben--”

 

She let the threat trail off as she put the flashlight back into her Inventory and pulled out the lighter Norman had smuggled her, so many months ago when things weren't so frightful. Flicking it on and finding to some relief that fire, at least, was more stubborn than electricity, she found the closest unlit candle to her and knelt to light it. When it finally took, she put back the lighter and picked up the candle, holding the ax behind her for balance. She lifted and rose, delicately, letting the fluttering light finally reveal the room's contents.

 

She recoiled instantly, biting back a scream.

 

The candles had been outlining a _Summoning Circle_ \-- the dancing demon's most likely, since the last she checked her's and Boris's were still all the way down on the 14 th floor. Something about it looked _wrong_ , to be sure, but it was more what was beyond it that made the angel grateful she hadn't eaten for a while; tied up to the wall with thick ropes was some sort of figure made of shadow and ink, sagging limply in their hold. Claws tore out of tattered white gloves, grasping weakly at the knots around its wrists. Too-long arms spiraled into spindly, bony angles before burrowing into oddly-round shoulders. The chest was fine, mostly, with little more than a sad looking crooked bow-tie perched on it as it heaved with every torturous breath, but its stomach bulged like a well-fed snake's. Legs as equally long and twisted as the arms lurched out from under the engorged gut, one ending in a cloven hoof and the other in a heavily abused tap shoe. Its head lolled a bit, crooked horns shifting in the shadows as a bit of white peered out of the darkness; a stretched out grin, taunting the angelic Toon in a way that the Cheshire Cat could only dream of. The figure continued to wheeze, and giggle.

 

After the horror subsided, it finally hit Alice she was looking at _Bendy_.

 

“Oh g--” Her breath choked as she scrambled forward, tossing the ax into her Inventory and collapsing to her knees beside the twisted form of the darlin' devil. “Ben?! Oh gosh, _Ben_ , what did they--” She finally put the candle down and worked up the nerve to place her hands on both sides of his face, lifting it up. “Can you hear me...?”

 

Ink obscured most of Bendy's face, but a single, bulging eye snapped open in response to her lifting his head and calling out. As she bit down on her lip to keep her expression calm, the eye darted about, blindly searching, before finally settling on her. He squinted slightly, distended grin curling up a little bit further on his face, a few more dazed giggles hissing out of him.

 

“A-Alice...?”, he croaked, a gurgling undercurrent in his voice not unlike those _things_ lurking about. Alice gulped.

 

“Yes”, she managed, proud that her voice only shook a _little_ at that. “Yes, it's me.” She tried to brush the ink out of his face, only to face more ink, as if her hand had never swiped past at all. Bendy blinked, slowly, head tilting quizzically.

 

“...They...got you too...?”

 

“No! No.” The angel shook her head, clearing her thoughts and gently lowering the darlin' devil's face back down. “I'm rescuing you.” She rose to her feet and pulled the ax back out, winding up. “Try not to squirm, please.”

 

Bendy didn't squirm. Indeed, he hardly reacted to Alice cutting the rope save for one of his arms dropping, a limp _splat_ echoing from where his hand hit the floor. “Re...scue...?”, he managed weakly.

 

She had almost forgotten how out of it he had been since taking-- no, _not_ taking ill. Since Joey started doing whatever it was to turn him into... _this_ . “Yes, rescue”, she repeated, softly, even as she walked around and prepared to chop the other rope, one hand hesitantly resting on one of his horns for a few moments. “I'm going to get this other rope, we're going to go get Boris, and then we're leaving this place. _Immediately_.” She wound up and sunk the ax into the second rope.

 

Once again, the demon hardly registered his hand being freed, not even to complain about the knots still on his wrists or snark about _Alice_ coming to _his_ rescue like he was some sort of damsel. “L-leavin'...”, he muttered, before groaning, somehow managing to sag even further than he already had been. “No...no, Alice, _no_...” The gurgle faded from his voice as it took some form of awareness and with it, distress. “S'too late, Canary...too late...” A hitching wheeze hissed out of his teeth. “You gotta go...go without me...maybe even k-- kill--”

 

“Don't!” She was shouting before she even realized it, biting her lip as Bendy flinched from the sudden sharp sound. She sighed. “Don't...” Putting the ax away, she knelt by him once more, lifting his head. The expression she found on what remained of his face was different, lucid even; his mouth was almost a reasonable-sized frown, bulging eye slightly wet with despair as it settled on her, confused by her reaction and pleading for her to listen all at once. She shook her head. “Don't say that.” She adjusted her hands to cradle his head more gently. “Listen to me, Ben; we _are_ getting out of here, and then we're finding a way to undo whatever Mister Drew's done to you. I promise.”

 

For a moment, his singular eye searched her face for any sign of hesitance. She gave none, and finally a tiny “ _heh_ ” wormed out of his throat as he leaned a little into her hands. A smile-- a real one, a small one-- twitched up on his face. “Yer sweet.”

 

She managed a small smile of her own. “Save the flattery for later, Ben.” Working up the nerve, she placed a fleeting kiss on his forehead, before looping her arm under his. “You're going to have to work with me here. Now I know--” She gave a slight “ _oof_ ” as she pulled them both to their feet, puffing her cheeks out with the effort. “--How much you hate that, but we don't have a lot of choice.”

 

Bendy gurgled and groaned as he got his mismatched feet under him, followed by something that sounded like a protesting grunt.

 

“I know, I know. But you're too big to carry like this.” One arm around his torso and the other holding his arm around her shoulders, she started leading them both towards the door. “Think of it this way; at least you're finally taller than someone.”

 

A tiny, genuine laugh escaped the dancing demon, before fading out into a rattle. The angel paused as they reached the door, trying to get a look at him.

 

“Ben...?”

 

A dazed, wheezing giggle was the only response. With a gulp, Alice unlocked the door and kicked it open with her foot, guiding them out into the hall and trying to ignore the icy tendrils of dread curling in her chest.

 

They were getting out of there. They were fixing this. They _had_ to.  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I̧ wo͘u̧ld҉ g̶i͡v͜e͟ anyth͢i̸ng to see̢ hi̛m sa͠fe̷ and ͢hap̵py͏ ҉a̡ga͘in͜.


End file.
